X-Files Anthology Collection
by MSDR89
Summary: This is going to be a collection of very short one-shots, vignettes, soliloquies, poems, unused scenes from other stories, etc. about various X-Files characters.
1. Mannequins

Dana Scully stared around the dim room. It was some sort of large storage closet, apparently for a number of mannequins. Reaching for the light, she froze as eyes snapped open all around her. What she saw as her eyes adjusted brought a scream to her lips, but only a soundless wheeze escaped.

William. Each and every one of the mannequins was William. Every possible age from old to young, with different body types, different hair styles. But each was clearly and undeniably William. They were all around her, the eyes focused on her. They didn't even look like dolls anymore. There was lively animation to them. They were the most realistic robots Scully had ever seen. But though realistic, they were still imperfect. It was the way a person might seem if they were resurrected from the dead, perhaps. To someone like Dana Scully, someone with a religious background, the difference might be defined as the absence of a soul.

Dana stared around her, stared at the dolls. There were at least 30 of them, maybe even 50. The eyes were strange. They glowed with a sort of backlight, the way a watch or a cell phone screen glows. It bathed each face in an eerie bluish-white luminance, spotlighting each of the William's. A terrible thought occurred to her. Her son, her real son, could be in here, hidden amongst these replicas. If he was drugged, or brain washed, he could be acting just like the rest of them. How would she ever be able to tell?

Staring around her, staring at all of the dolls, she tried to find one that could be him. There were a dozen or more that were the right age and with hair like his. Barely grasping sanity now, faced with so many inorganic clones of her son, strains of a familiar song swam through her mind. And around her the dolls sprang to life.

Not all at once, bust close together, each and every one of them began to sing. Sweet childish voices of various ages floated through the room, bouncing off bare walls. Though the voices were human, there was an eerie lack of emotion to them. Though they did not sing flatly, there was no depth. _"Jeremiah was a bullfrog, was a good friend of mine…"_ And Dana Scully was finally able to scream, surrounded by those singing copies of her son who had pulled the song right out of her mind.


	2. Unused Scene from WHTBW 1

This is an unused portion that was original intended for Chapter Five in my X-Files Fanfiction 'Whatever Happened to Baby William'.

* * *

Dana sat on a bench in the hospital's courtyard. It had been a slow day at work, and she had taken a long lunch break to see if she could find anything out about William or Billy. She chewed her tuna sandwich slowly as she stared ahead, unseeing.

She hadn't uncovered anything. Without a last name for Billy, it was next to impossible to find out anything. She didn't even really know who he was. As for William, that was even worse. According to the public records, there had never been a William John Mulder born on May 20th, 2001. He had never been checked into the D.C. Memorial Hospital during the early morning hours of May 21st, 2001. He had not gone to said hospital for any reason during his first 8 months of life.

Dana frowned as she swallowed the bite of her sandwich, not tasting it. It was wrong, all wrong. Those kinds of records would not be destroyed. She would not be allowed access to them, but she would also not be told that they didn't exist, that her son didn't exist. There had never been a birth certificate issued for that person either, according to the official records, nor a Social Security Number. A person by that name had never been on her health insurance, had never been enrolled for 2 months at the Wee-Care Nursery School half way between her house and her Mother's. Even her own records had been altered. She had never had a child, never gone for pre-natal appointments at D.C. Memorial or anywhere else. She had never even been pregnant according to all of the official public documents. William had been effectively erased from the record, period.

Dana stood up suddenly, crumpling her lunch up inside of the brown paper bag she had packed it in. It was intact save for two bites from the sandwich. Our Lady of Sorrows suddenly felt crowded, cramped. She had to get away. She walked briskly towards the main building, not even pausing as she tossed her lunch into the garbage receptacle.

Less than 10 minutes later she had her belongings and was pulling out of the parking lot, cell phone held against her ear by her shoulder. It went to voice mail and the message she left was terse and to the point.

"Mulder, it's me. I'm on my way home. Look, if Billy isn't our son, we need to find out where William is. Something's wrong."

Dana Scully snapped the cell phone closed and tossed it onto the passenger seat with her purse. Waiting for the light to change to green, she tapped her fingers on the steering wheel impatiently. How had she thought that the best thing would be not knowing where he was?

Mulder didn't hear his phone ring. He was too busy running the vacuum and clearing the clutter out of the dining room. Somehow he doubted they would use it tonight, they never used it, but he figured it would look better if it were at least a possibility. He was just finishing up and putting everything away when Dana came in.

It only took a glance to see that she was worked up about something. Her cheeks were flushed, and her eyes were wide and glittering. She tossed her purse on his clean table and her jacket over one of the chairs. She didn't even notice the clean dining room. She just said "Mulder, where were you?"

He gave her a perplexed look. "I've been here all day. Look at this place, where do you think I was?"

Dana glanced around. "It looks nice." she said absently before pushing on. "Why didn't you answer the phone than? I tried calling you three times."

Mulder shrugged. "I was probably running the vacuum. Why? What happened, did you find something out about William?"

Dana shook her head and sat down on one of the dining room chairs. "No, I didn't. That's the problem. You were right; he's been completely erased. There are no birth records, no social security number, and no health records. There's nothing, Mulder. Absolutely nothing. It's as if he was never born. Even my records have been changed."

Mulder frowned at the last bit of news. He had known the rest of it already, but he hadn't thought to look at her records. "Your records were changed too?" he asked, and she nodded. He was silent for a moment. He didn't know what to say. It was barely any more information than they'd had before and nothing new to go on.

Dana reached out and touched his arm. "Mulder… We need to find him. We need to find out where William is, where he has been. Who has him. I _never_ should have let him go without knowing where he was going to. _Never_.

Mulder stopped and looked at her. "Scully, don't-" he started, but she cut him off, her voice rising querulously.

"Don't tell me don't, Mulder!" she yelled, standing up. "This is my fault, all my fault. If I hadn't been so stupid about this whole thing, we would know exactly where he is. There would be no question about Billy. Now, now we know nothing. He could be with them Mulder, do you realize that? He could be with the aliens, with their allies. He could have been with them for years, and we would never know it because _I_ sent him away with no idea of where I was sending him, or who I was sending him with!"

Mulder grabbed her by her upper arms. "Dana, stop it!" he said forcefully. "Just stop! Stop blaming yourself. This isn't about what is whose fault. It's too late for that, and it doesn't matter anyway. What matters is now we know that sending him away didn't work. Someone still knows something, and if they haven't found him yet, they are trying to. Do we agree on that?"

Dana nodded and sat back down. Mulder couldn't remember ever seeing her look more defeated. "Yes, I agree. I can feel it. Wherever William is, and Mulder I really do think Billy is our son, he's in trouble. Or he will be soon."

Mulder nodded. "Alright, listen. Here's my plan. John and Monica are coming over tonight for dinner. I told them about William and Billy, and they're helping."

Dana's eyes widened. "What? Mulder, when did you talk to them? Why didn't you say anything?" she asked.

Mulder grinned guiltily. "Well, it was supposed to be your surprise. But anyway, once we figure out if Billy is our son, we can go on from there, right? I mean, if he is, we can keep him safe. If he isn't, we could be in some trouble until we figure out where he is. Either way, we are going to find him."

Dana felt a sudden pang of sorrow for Mulder. He'd spent the first part of his life on a quest to find his sister. Now he was looking at spending the rest of his life trying to find their son. It just wasn't fair, to make a man spend his whole life searching.

"Mulder, I don't understand. Why do they want him? He, he isn't one of them anymore. Jeffrey Spender normalized his biology. That was the reason I gave him up! If Spender could get to him, and Agent Comer, than I couldn't keep him safe." Dana said, puzzled. "Spender said they would never accept what he had become, but would they go so far for nothing?"

Mulder didn't want to worry her, so he didn't say yes. "I don't know, Dana. It's been 5 years now. Things can change, maybe they found a way to reverse what Jeffrey did."

Dana paled. "Oh God Mulder, I hope not! If they could reverse it, they'll use him for the colonization!"


	3. Unused Scene from WHTBW 2

This is an unused bit from a chapter of my fanfiction 'Whatever Happened to Baby William'.

* * *

"Why do you do that?" a curious voice whispered across the tiny bedroom that William shared with Ellis, Derek, and Joy. Two bunk beds lined the walls of the room, Joy and Derek on the tops, Ellis and William below.

William sighed and finished his prayer before climbing into the bunk below Joy. "Because that's what my Mom taught me to do every night before bed." He whispered back in answer. It wasn't the first time Derek had asked, and William figured it wouldn't be the last. When Derek swung out of the bunk quietly, William figured that it wasn't the end of the conversation tonight, either.

"Yeah, I know, but I don't get it." Derek's eyes burned close to William, and there was a certain maliciousness in them. "Like, why do you still call that lady your Mom? None of us have, none of us _ever_ had, Moms or Dads. We just had Keepers. And that includes you, and you know it now. So why would you still call some lady Mom?"

"She was my Mom." William answered tightly, hands balled into fists, lips thing white lines. He and Derek had never gotten along particularly well. Derek taunted William for anything and everything constantly. Lately his favorite taunts were about William's insistence that he had family, and because William still prayed every night.

"No, she wasn't." Derek insisted, the nasty playful light dancing in his eyes as he moved to make sure William was constantly looking in his eyes. "You never had a Mom, deal with it, stop being such a weird little sissy about it. She was a fake, just like all the rest of us had. You never had a Mom, or a Dad. Or Grandparents, or Aunts or Uncles or anything!" Derek hissed at him in the darkness. Real anger had begun to creep into his voice. "You're nothing special, you're just like the rest of us. What do you think you are, some little Golden Boy, the only one of us to have family? Huh?"

"Stop it Derek! Leave him alone!" Joy's voice floated down from the bunk overhead and a moment later her head appeared upside down over the edge of the bed. "If he wants to think of his Keepers as parents than let him! I did too, and it's none of your business anyway. You aren't his boss!"

Derek glared at her. Before William had come he and Joy had been relatively good friends. They'd both shared a dislike and contempt for the way Samantha felt about Victor and Amy over the other children. But ever since William, things had changed, and it infuriated Derek. "You aren't my boss, either. So buzz off and mind your own business." Derek looked down at William. "And why do you still get down on your knees like that? You know better than that, too. There is no 'God'." Derek grinned, brilliantly white teeth almost glowing in the darkness of the room. He stood up next to the bed. "We are the real Gods of this place. Someday soon all the pathetic idiots who worship so-called 'God' will fall down before our might and worship us." Derek smirked and leaned down close to William's face. "And you can fall down and worship us too if that's what you want, to go down on your knees every night to a power greater than you."

William swung at Derek, but as he did a hand came out of the darkness and caught his fist easily, and at the same moment Derek was pulled back. It was Ellis.

"I've had enough of both of you." She said coldly. "Go to sleep, William. Derek, get back in bed. There is a time and a place to handle your differences. Now it's time to sleep."

"William didn't do anything, Derek started the whole thing!" Joy protested, sitting up in her bed. "He's always picking on William!"

"That's enough, Joy." Ellis answered, and now there was a slightly more mothering tone in her voice. "William is capable of taking care of himself, and he'd have many less issues if he would stop provoking everyone with his nonsense about God and parents. All of you, go to sleep, and not another word."

No one else said anything, and Derek and Joy's snores soon became a gentle background sound. Ellis slept in silence, but William laid awake for a long time after, staring at the bottom of the bunk above him, a hot sick fury burning in his stomach.


	4. Mommy, I Gotta Pee!

A thank you goes out to my cousin T.J., who pulled a very similar bathroom incident with my Mother when he was toddler, for the inspiration.

* * *

Dana Scully made her way through the crowded mall, her three year old son on her left hip, her nine year old daughter tugging her right hand, dragging her over to a table filled with sparkling plastic bracelets, necklaces, and pins.

"Mommy Mommy Mommy! Look!" Emily exclaimed, pointing to a gaudy frog pendant. "Mommy, isn't it pretty?" Emily's latest 'thing' was to just yell 'Mommy' over and over, louder and louder, if she didn't receive her mother's full attention instantly. Her younger brother had also picked up the practice with gusto, including parroting Emily whenever she said 'Mommy'. He demonstrated his abilities immediately by shrieking "Mommy!" directly into Scully's hear loud enough to make it ring.

Emily didn't wait for her mother to reply, she was already rushing off to another table, this one full of make-up in obnoxiously bright shades being marketed to the ten and under crowd. "Mommy! Mommy mommy! Mommy look!"

Scully knew her boisterous daughter, and had dressed her loudly on purpose. Emily's neon pink t-shirt, lime green sneakers, and glitzified headband would stand out anywhere. Unfortunately, it seemed to be blending in with much of the product available at the convention.

"Ems, wait for me!" Scully called as her daughter zigged and zagged past the other people, causing her mother to weave through the crowd like a linebacker, bumping into more people than not as she tried to keep her daughter within her sight.

Lucky for Scully, Emily wasn't on the move very long. She had come to a stop in front of a table set up by an exotic animal breeder, and currently was sticking her fingers into a large cage containing a pair of animals that looked like a cross between a raccoon and an anteater.

"EMILY!" Scully shrieked, running at her daughter. Emily jumped back from the cage like she'd been burned and looked around in mild shock. The proprietor of the table smirked and tried to hide his chuckles.

"Emily, don't you ever do that again!" Scully admonished. "You don't just pet a strange animal, you know better than that."

"But Mommy, they're just Coatis!" Emily protested, looking over her shoulder. One of the creatures was sticking its snout through the mesh, clearly expecting a treat of some sort.

"Emily Christine, I don't care if it's a dust bunny with no teeth or mouth, don't you ever touch an animal, any animal, without asking me or Daddy first! Do you understand me?"

"Yeah, fine, whatever." Emily muttered unhappily, looking and sounding incredibly like her mother at the moment.

"It's alright Ma'am, they wouldn't hurt 'er." The proprietor called over. Scully gave him a strained smile and suppressed her irritation as best she could. "Don't 'whatever' me, Emily."

Emily only moped for a few minutes before the excitement of all the displays got to her and she was dashing from exhibit to exhibit. Scully got them pizza for lunch, and while William and Emily sat at the table eating she popped two Excedrin into her mouth and washed them down with her diet coke. The mall was even louder than she had expected. Apparently the indoor market extravaganza they held every third Sunday of the month had really caught on.

Emily was babbling on and on excitedly while she ate, every other word of her mouth seeming to be 'Mommy'. William was chattering along with her, most of his commentary seeming to be 'Mommy mommy!' as well.

"Mommy? Mommy? Mommy! MOM-MEEE!" Emily yelled, apparently expecting a response to something, but Scully hadn't been really listening for the last few minutes. William joined in with her. "Mommy! MOMMY!"

Scully rubbed her temples, trying to will the headache away, but that only seemed to make it worse. "Mommy changed her name to a phone number and it's unlisted." She answered, slightly irritably.

Unperturbed, Emily giggled, hands over her mouth. "Mommy…"

Scully sighed and looked up at her daughter, her smile only slightly forced. "What's up Ems?" Meanwhile, her son was standing next to her, tugging at her shirt. "Wait your turn William, Emmy's talking." She would have paid more attention if William hadn't been drowned out by the crowd around them, asking in a sing-song voice to use the bathroom.

He stood next to her, dancing slightly, and repeating over and over "Mom-me, I gotta pee-ee. Mom-mee, I gotta pee-ee." Each time he repeated it, he got a little bit louder. Finally, still not getting a response, he stood up on the bench next to her and, as loud as he could, yelled "MOM-MEEE!" I REALLY GOTTA PEE-EEE!" still in a sing-song voice, still dancing, now with his legs crossed and both hands jammed between them.

Around their table the mall fell quiet, and then everyone around them began laughing. Emily, who had been shocked into silence, put both hands over her mouth and began to laugh as well. Scully, blushing, jumped up and grabbed her son, making a sprint for the nearest bathroom, dragging her daughter along behind her, still laughing hysterically. Why did Mulder always have work when she needed him?


End file.
